SynopsisI Cannibali is a contemporary Antigone adaptation in wide-screen format. The film transports fascism to the present day, Milan is the centre of a totalitarian state. Numerous corpses lie in the streets, the underground and in the squares. Passers by walk past or step over them as if they meant nothing. The dead are the victims of a failed uprising, and a threatening reminder to its supporters: it is strictly forbidden to touch them. A young man is washed ashore. Nobody can understand him, as he speaks an unknown language. In a bar he meets Antigone, a young upper-class woman who is looking for her brother among the victims. Together they begin removing the dead by car from the city and burying them.

BiographyThe Italian scriptwriter and director LILIANA CAVANI was born in 1933. She studied Literature and Linguistics at the University of Bologna. She was already active at this time in the film club there. After her PhD in Linguistics, in 1960 she took the directing course at the Film Academy Rome. From 1962 to 1965, she worked for the Italian television station RAI and made several documentaries. Her contribution Philippe Petain – Processo a Vichy won an award in 1965 at the Venice Film Festival as the best television production. In 1966 she moved to the cinema and made her debut with Francesco d'Assisi. She caused a worldwide sensation in 1974 with her film Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter) about the sexual relations between a former concentration camp female inmate and her SS tormentor. After legal arguments, the film was eventually declared a work of art, and released unabridged.